Rich Fool

Sermon  •  Submitted
0 ratings
· 14 views
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
View more →

Scripture

Luke 12:13–21 NIV
13 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” 14 Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” 15 Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” 16 And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. 17 He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ 18 “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. 19 And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.” ’ 20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ 21 “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”

Introduction

Have you ever played that board game Trivial Pursuit? That would be a good description of the way that a lot of people spend their lives today expending all of their energies in the pursuit of things that are in the end really trivial. Trivial because in the end all that will be left is that which is eternal.

VIDEO WITH WOMAN ON FACEBOOK GETTING ON
A lot of people spend their whole life obsessed with money . We would be talking about that a lot in this sermon on a rich fool.
A rich person doesnt make them a fool but sad to say there is a lot of rich fools today.
If God says you’re a fool then you’re a fool big time
Some people take the view of prosperity and say God wants you to be rich. They take certain Scriptures out of context to make the point: if you really are a Christian then God will make you happy, wealthy, successful, and blessed. You just have to call on the promises of God and He will give you whatever you ask for. So all the poor starving children in Africa are really just Godless heathens living in sin because if they really believed in God they would be driving around in Mercedes not searching for a meal in trash cans. This Donald Trump view of Scripture is wrong.
A second group promotes a poverty stance. Being a good Christians means you cant have money, you cant be wealthy, and you cant really enjoy life. Their idea is that the entirety of the Christian life should be summed up by sacrifice and suffering. This is Ghandi’s Bible. It is also wrong.
When Jesus talks about money He addresses the heart and motivation. The Christian life is not synonymous with poverty. It is also not about wealth. Being like Jesus has nothing to do with how much money you have. Being rich doesn’t make you a sinner. Being poor does not make you saint. Sinners are people who put money before God. Saints are people who put God before money. Look at Barnabas in the book of Acts. The guy had a lot of land. He was a rich dude and he was a Christian. When someone had a need Barnabas would sell his possessions and give the money to the apostles so they could meet the need. He had wealth and Jesus. A Biblical view of money is not about how much you have, but what you do with it.
Jesus was teaching and this fellar interrupted him to tell him to divide the family inheritance with him.
So this guy has money issues and he is like the world is blaming someone else for them. It’s not my fault Jesus my brother is cheating me out of my inheritance, please make him stop. His cultural view of money is now affecting his connection to Jesus. Instead of hearing Jesus and learning to be like Him this guy wants Jesus to resolve his family dispute. It was common for rabbis to be asked to judge civil matters because the Jews didn’t separate church and state like we do. Having religious authority would be the same as having legal authority on civil matters.
Jesus does not actually have legal authority on this matter. He is not officially a part of the religious-political system. He does however have divine authority and the power of popularity on His side. So Jesus could very easily weigh in on this situation and force His decision on this family.
This guy would have just been given a bunch of money he didn’t earn as his inheritance. But that is not enough for him because he is greedy. He wants more. He is asking Jesus to help him get more money. He could ask Jesus anything. He has this opportunity to talk to the Son of God and what does he want to talk about? Money. Money is on his mind, it’s his highest priority, it’s his first thought. He is not listening to what Jesus is saying because he is focused on something less important.
People want Jesus to fix their problems but not their heart.

It is amazing how many people will go and take out every insurance policy available. They will get life insurance, medical insurance, fire insurance, earthquake insurance, but the won’t give a single though to their eternal insurance if their life is really right with God.

We can learn a lot from this parable

Don’t Be Greedy To Accumulate Things Of No Eternal Value

Luke 12 vs 16 A man’s life does not consist on the abundance of his possessions
Greed creates a desire for excess where enough is never enough. This guy is trying to increase the quality of his life by increasing his possessions. Jesus responds: life is not found in what you own but in a relationship with the almighty God. Jesus is not concerned with how big this guy can get his storehouses. He is concerned about this guy putting money before God, which we sometimes do.
We labor and slave to get the next cool piece of technology, to be state of the art, and to fill our lives with ‘stuffyness.’ We stop being content with what we have and we constantly want more. We believe that our wants are needs and they dominate our thoughts. Greed comes from not being satisfied with what you have. The lie of the American dream is: if I can get this…then I will happy. Marketing promises that this new thing is the what your life has been missing, you cant be complete without it, and when you get you’ll never need anything else. Marketing is the art of making us slaves to greed. So many people live their lives from one credit card payment to another because we are greedy. We need to have it before we can afford it, we are not satisfied without it, so we spend money we have on stuff that we don’t need. If you didn’t know you needed something before you saw it advertised then you don’t need it.
So Jesus talks about this rich man who had seriously misplaced priorities. Now let’s not get this thing wrong. There are commendable things about the man that we just read about. There is nothing wrong with the fact that he was successful in farming and had a bumper crop and needed bigger barns to house what he had harvested. The problem was this man gave no thought to God. Jesus does not criticize this man in any way. He doesn’t say that he did it through deceit or treachery or taking advantage of others. The problem with this guy was that just within his success he did not think of God at all or of the needs of others.
We live in a world today where people very greedy
They want more and more toys
Have a car but you want another car
Money but we want more money
God is not against you having things but he is against things having you.
There is nothing wrong with wanting to have something more in your life but when that lust begins to consume you and that is all you feel life is about you will be led astray.

When John D Rockefeller was the richest man in the world, someone asked him, “How much money was enough?” His reply was, “Just a little bit more.”

That is the perfect definition of the man or the woman that is filled with greed. In fact, Proverbs portrays greed as a dividing line between righteous and evil people. In Proverbs 21:26 it says, “All day long he craves for more, but the righteous gives without sparing.”

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. 1 Tim 6 vs 10
Many people have turned their backs on God to go after toys….

Covetousness is a tricky sin. We may pride ourselves on the fact that we are not committing certain sins like sexual immorality or impurity, but at the same time we may be constantly coveting things.

Understand what the Bible is saying. It is not a sin to be successful in business make a good living, but when you become obsessed with it, when you are willing to do whatever it takes to get there, when you find yourself bending every effort to grasp it, and it becomes the most important thing in life to you, then that pursuit has taken the place of God.

The Bible warns that covetousness is idolatry. That greedy desire to have more can actually become a God in your life and choke you out spiritually.

Covetousness can lead to all kinds of sings e.g David and Bathsheba
This fool invested in personal luxury instead of eternity. He may have worked hard and earned every penny but when he dies it will go to someone else. All that hard work is just going to be given to people who didn’t earn and may not deserve it.
Pastor Mario was saying buy 2 gifts
We have big hard back men and women today behaving like kids
Greed is a sin. It is even made God’s top ten list of laws. When we long for more stuff, for things we don’t need: bigger houses, fancier cars, technology, and shoes and pursues for you girls, that is a sin. Living with a desire for more than what you have when you have everything you need is greed and it is a sin.
What we do in this life, the stuff we work so hard to gather will one day be packed into cardboard boxes and sold at a garage sale. The treasures we just couldn’t be happy without, will be sold for spare change.

Don’t Think Only of Yourself And Neglect Others

This man had so much crops and goods and material things that he realized he didn’t have enough room to store them so he decided to tear down his barns and build bigger ones

This guy said in verse 18, “I want to build bigger barns to store all of my crops and goods.” Again, there is nothing wrong with the fact that he wanted to build bigger barns. In fact, it was a prudent move business wise to protect his investments. But the danger is in what was missing. There is no thought of God. No thought of the need of others. He just thought I am going to build bigger barns to house all of my stuff.

Jesus is not criticizing this man for the fact that he worked hard or that he saved for the future. His problem was he did not think about his spiritual future and he did not rise to the responsibilities that wealth can bring.

You see many times when we have plenty we begin to get filled with pride and we begin to think selfishly and we begin to think that life is only about me, myself and I….
1 tim 6 vs 17-19 As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. 18 They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, 19 thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.
In other words if you are rich, don’t hold on to your riches, don’t put your trust in it, but be rich in doing good deeds, share what you have with other people in need
You are blessed to be a blessing.
We are God’s redemptive agents in the world. He gives us opportunities to share His love with people. So instead of giving everyone a dollar, God gives one person $2 and the other none. This way we, through relationships, can share the love of Jesus with people. That is the opportunity we have. Some people do not have enough. Some people have too much. So here is the solution: those who have in excess should share. If you have something you don’t need, just pray that God will put you in contact with someone in need, so you can rid yourself of the excess while meeting another’s need. It’s a perfect system. You get to be blessed by sharing love in a practical way, and that person gets to be blessed by receiving God’s provision through you. What a wonderful opportunity! Thank God that He isn’t a communist. He has given more to some so they can help others. What we have is a tool to express the love of Jesus. The righteous use what they have to glorify God the unrighteous use what they have to serve themselves. Having wealth is a good thing, if you worship God with it. Will you be foolish or faithful with your finances?
Some of you may be saying well I not a rich person so this doesnt apply to me

“If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, you are more blessed than the million who will not survive this week. If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture or the pangs of starvation, you are ahead of 500 million people in the world. If you can attend a church service without the fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death, you are more blessed than 3 billion people in the world. If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of the world. If you have money in the bank, in your wallet and spare change in a dish somewhere, you are among the top 8% of the world’s wealthy.”

Don’t Be Rich Towards Yourself but be rich towards God vs 21

Kent Hughes in his commentary on the gospel of Luke wrote these words on this topic. “We can enlarge our savings and build huge accounts to hold it all. We can plan our retirement so we will have nothing to do but change positions in the sun. We can plan our menus for the twilight years so that nothing but the finest cuisine crosses our lips. We can live as if this is all of life. We can laugh our way to the grave only to discover in the end that we have nothing and are in God’s eyes fools.”

This was the problem with this guy. He didn’t plan for the future. He had a life of pointless ease like these dot.com millionaires.

When you leave this earth you won’t get to carry anything with you
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal Matthew 6 vs 19-20
When you stand before God he won’t ask you the size of your bank account but he would ask what you did with the money that was in your bank account?
Did you take all the money you had and invest it in the Kingdom of God or you used everything for yourself?
Did you give to your brothers when they were in need or did you give to Unit Trust because you are too full of Greed?
Were you a tither or were you a hoarder?
Here is what it comes down to. You have to realize that if God has blessed you with the ability to retire, that doesn’t mean that you retire spiritually. You don’t take a spiritual vacation do you? I am going to take a vacation from Christianity for a couple of weeks. Maybe a month. I don’t think so. You need to realize that everything that you have in life has been given to you by God including the breath that you are drawing in your lungs. Your goal as a Christian should be to seek to glorify God.
What did you do with your life???
One life it will soon be past only what is done for Christ will last!!!!
Some practical advice

Be a Good Steward

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace: 1 Peter 4 vs 10

Remember that Jesus died so that you can become rich in him and as he gave his life for you, so you ought to live your life for others as well

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich. 2 cor 8 vs 9
The truly rich people are those who have Christ in them. He is the most valuable possession anyone can have.
Riches can bring a false sense of security

Conclusion

Here is what it comes down to. You are not going to lengthen your life one day longer than you were meant to live. When your number is up, it is up. There is nothing you can really do about it.
The mistake that this man made was he thought had years ahead and he did not. God said, “Your soul will be required of you.”

It is still true today. You meet people and all they think about is the material. All they think about is the physical. All they think about is earthly pleasure. They never give a single thought to their soul or to eternity.

Do you have Jesus Christ living inside of you right now? Has He forgiven you of your sins? We have all sinned and broken God’s commandments. But God loved us so much that 2000 years ago He sent Jesus to die on the cross in our place and shed His blood for every sin we have ever committed. Jesus rose from the dead after He was crucified on that cross and now He stands at the door of every human heart and says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock and if you will hear my voice and open the door, I will come in.”

Have you asked Jesus Christ to come into your life? What if this were your last day on earth? Would you be ready to meet God? If not, I will give you an opportunity to meet Him today.

There might be some of us who have misplaced priorities. We are Christians, but we have made our career more important to us than God. We have made the pursuit of things more important to us than the kingdom of God. We have allowed other priorities to take His place in our lives. Some of us need to do a little readjusting. We need to do a realignment in our lives and make sure that we are seeking first the kingdom of God in all things. It can make the biggest difference.

Related Media
See more
Related Sermons
See more